Sandalwood smugglers busted in Delhi, 3 held

New Delhi: Delhi Police busted an interstate gang of red sandalwood smugglers and arrested its three members here with 133 logs of red sandalwood that valued over Rs 4 crore in the Chinese market, an officer said on Saturday.

The gang members were arrested on Friday night following a tip-off

Police said the accused have been identified as Krishan a resident of Rajasthan, Ravinder a resident of Haryana and Neeraj a resident of Delhi. The gang was involved in smuggling red sandalwood from southern states to other parts of the country including national capital for the last few months.

“The gang members were arrested on Friday night following a tip-off when they were coming in a truck laden with 133 logs of red sandalwood through Ring Road to south Delhi’s Ashram Chowk. A team of Special Task Force (STF) headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Pankaj Singh intercepted the truck and arrested Krishan, Ravinder and Neeraj,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) G Ram Gopal Naik said.

“During investigation, a wildlife inspector was also called and identified the logs as red sanders (Pterocarpus Santalinus),” Naik said.

“During interrogation, the accused said they loaded the trucks with red sandalwood from a transportation centre in Bangalore. To conceal red sandalwood, they put agarbatti and other fragrance sticks so that the smell could not be detected,” the officer added.

“They were going to store these logs in a godown in Delhi from where these logs were to be delivered to their contacts in the capital, Noida and other parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana at high rates,” he added.